Rain Drops. Drop Tops. Did Lebron James Flippy Flop Flop?

So last night, the Cavaliers and Warriors squared off in an NBA Finals rematch. The game was a blow out, as Golden State controlled the entire game and won 126-91. The blowout wasn’t the big takeaway from this game, the collision between Lebron James and Draymond Green was.

As you can see in the video below, Lebron was leading a fast break when Green fouled him to stop the easy basket. Nothing dirty about it, just a good basketball play. Now the debate is, did Lebron flop?

This one is tricky. There is clearly contact from Green. He drops his shoulder right into Lebron. But James is like 265 pounds. Not to body shame, but Draymond Green is a big boy himself, and when Lebron is running full speed ahead on a fast break, his momentum shouldn’t have let him fall on backwards as if he had been on the receiving end of clothesline to hell from the Undertaker.

You can see Lebron’s thought process as he is getting hit. As soon as he feels contact from Green, he tilts his head back and throws his hands up in the air sometimes! Saying ayyyyyo, gotta let go. In all seriousness though, were those theatrics necessary from Lebron? Probably not, but I do understand why he did it.

First off, Lebron is so big and strong, he actually doesn’t get some of the calls other players would because the contact has little to no effect on James’ powerful body. So when he does get hit, he has to really sell it. In this case, he didn’t need to sell, but he is probably programmed to just instantly react like that to contact, it was a natural reaction. Secondly, with Draymond’s notoriously dirty reputation, if Lebron sells the contact, Green could potentially be kicked out of the game. If Green had been given a flagrant II foul, he would have been ejected from the game.

After further review, the ruling on the court is that Lebron did in fact flop just a little bit. There was obvious contact, but the effects of the contact were definitely exaggerated. Sad!